Keine Gefangenen, bloß hochintensiver Rock’n’Roll aus den Wäldern Schwedens mit einer Sängerin und einem Sänger, die bei surfenden Uptempo-Drumbeats einfach nicht den Mund halten wollen! Genau das ist „Goddamn“, die zweite Single von THE SENSITIVES aus dem kommenden Album PATCH IT UP AND GO, das am 10. November auf Kidnap Music Records erscheint! Wir haben mit Martin über die aktuelle Single, das Album mit dazugehöriger Tour sowie berühmt gerüchtigtem Band Van gesprochen.
Frontstage Magazine: How are you?
Martin: I’m very good thanks, we’re leaving for tour in a couple of days and the last days of preparations are going really well so far!
We’re very excited for these shows!
Frontstage Magazine: Your single “GODDAMN” was recently released. What is the song about and what does it mean to you?
Martin: The story of Goddamn begins when I, in a weak moment, started reading a comment section on Facebook from a science magazine who posted an article about electric cars.
Oh boy, I should not have done that! Goddamn, some men are crazy offended just by the fact that a magazine writes about electric cars, not even trying to sell them, just by writing about them! All of a sudden driving a diesel car is a part of their macho man identity and they’re sure some leftist woke mafia is trying to take away their meat and that this country is worse than every other country on the planet. All from an article about a fucking electric car!
All the lyrics in Goddamn come from that comment section so I guess I should be a little grateful for that but holy shit, those types of people suck!
I really wish I could afford an electric car, not because of the car itself but it would be amazing to drive something that pisses people off like that!
Frontstage Magazine: Your album “PATCH IT UP AND GO” will be released in November – what does the title mean?
Martin: Patch It Up And Go‘ is all about overcoming self-doubt and taking the leap. It’s an attack on that universal feeling of wanting to pursue something, like playing the guitar in a band or traveling to new places, but hesitating due to fear or uncertainty. We’ve all been there. I think it’s a dangerous roadblock that often keeps us doing what’s “safe” instead of doing what we really want.
Its also a song on the album with the same title. This song is an anthem for breaking through that fear, for DIY resilience. It’s about building something from scratch, watching it break down and then patching it up with duct tape or whatever you got access to, giving it another shot, and hoping it all falls into place this time. And if it doesn’t, just patch it up and go again!
Frontstage Magazine: Do you have a favorite song on the album? If so, which one and what makes the song so special?
Martin: Right now it’s „Better Smarter Stronger“! It’s the first single from the new album and everytime we play it live now it puts the whole room in such a good mood and the party is on!
Frontstage Magazine: What was the process of creating the album like? Did you sit down and sketch out what you wanted the album to be and was it a growing process?
Martin: Last year was a crazy year for us. When the restrictions were lifted we went straight back on the road and did so much touring before the year was over! It was great in many ways, shows were amazing and our audiences got bigger but it also took a big hit on us and at the end of the year we were struggling with our mental health.
When we sat down to take a look at all the songs we had also written in that year it got obvious that they all, in one way or another, had something to do with the struggle we went through during the pandemic, in different areas of our lives.
All in very different perspectives, both good and bad.
It all resulted in „Patch It Up and Go!“ which is probably our most intense album and the one we´re the most proud of so far!
Frontstage Magazine: You’ll be going on tour soon. How are you preparing for this?
Martin: Yeah, it’s gonna be so great to hit the roads again! It feels like we’re in Germany all the time this year so it’s a little bit like coming home when we hit the road these days!
Most of our tour preparations actually goes into making merch! Last year we started making our own upcycled merch from clothes from second hand stores and this has been really appreciated, which made us excited to create more stuff like that! It’s cool that people want both unique items and eco friendly merch so for this tour we’re making jeans jackets with a screen print on the back and patches, all done DIY in our basement! These are exclusive for the tours and online on our Patreon page!
It costs 3€ to support us on Patreon and get access to 20+ unreleased songs, live sessions videos and exclusive merch, so if you’re in the market for a warm, custom ordered jeans jacket for the winter, you know where to find it!;)
Frontstage Magazine: Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Martin: Just the usual stuff, being super nervous and peeing six times in 20 minutes, trying to find the guitarist and figuring out what songs to play tonight!
Frontstage Magazine: How does the German audience differ from the Swedish audience?
Martin: The Swedish audience is a bit more reserved than the German audience. It might have something to do with a beer costing 8€ in the bar, making Swedish audiences painfully sober sometimes! haha!
Frontstage Magazine: And finally – what’s the story behind your van? Why does it always break?
Martin: Well, for the first years it kind of made sense that it broke down all the time. We toured a lot but had no money so we drove an old, crappy Mercedes van where a big chunk of rust would fall off the car every time you closed the door a little too hard.
It’s just common sense that those old things will break down when you drive them as much as we did, especially as we often toured further east in Europe where the roads aren’t always brand new.
But two years ago we thought, “fuck it, we’re tired of this rusty piece of crap, let’s take a loan and buy a modern VW van so we dont need to repair it all the time!”.
So we did that. What we’ve learnt from that experience is that those bastards breaks down as well and when they do, it’s bloody expensive! The first year of touring in that thing we spent about 6000€ in German garages to get it running again. ….I’m starting to miss that old, rusty Mercedes van, at least it was cheap to fix and you could usually use a hammer and duct tape to get the job done!
Frontstage Magazine: Thank you so much for your time!
Martin: Thank you, hope to see you at the shows!
„Patch It Up And Go!“ Tour 2023
05.10.23 Oberhausen Druckluft
06.10.23 Husum Shamrock
07.10.23 Oerlinghausen Knup
08.10.23 Göttingen Nörgelbuff
10.10.23 Hannover Kulturzentrum Faust
11.10.23 Hamburg Hafenklang
13.10.23 Halle (Saale) Alte Schule – Home Of Subculture
14.10.23 Bernau Klub am Steintor
30.11.23 Nürnberg Kunstverein
01.12.23 Bodenmais Rote Res
02.12.23 München Glockenbachwerkstatt
03.12.23 Bern (CH) Rössli Reitschule
04.12.23 Zürich (CH) Dynamo
06.12.23 Hildesheim Club VEB / Kufa Löseke
07.12.23 Karlsruhe Alte Hackerei
08.12.23 tba
09.12.23 tba
Fotocredit: Johanna Aspfors
